FTC Wins Challenge Against Idaho Hospital Deal

A federal judge ruled Friday that an Idaho hospital system must unwind its acquisition of the state’s largest independent doctor group, a decision that could have significant implications as health-care providers nationwide increasingly seek to join forces.

The ruling handed another victory to the Federal Trade Commission, which in recent years has renewed its efforts to police health-care mergers it sees as anticompetitive. The commission has won a string of rulings against mergers between competing hospitals. The Idaho case was considered a key test for the FTC because the agency was seeking to stop a different type of transaction, the acquisition of a physician group.

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Lawyer David A. Ettinger, who represented a competing Idaho hospital that opposed the St. Luke’s transaction, said the judge’s ruling effectively rebuts “the notion that all these transactions are appropriate because of the Affordable Care Act.”